During the Christmas season, people are more likely to send or receive gifts of cash or smaller items in their mailbox. Cedar Springs Police Chief Roger Parent would like to remind residents to remove mail as soon as possible from their mailbox to avoid mail theft, and to use the United States Post Office to send out mail, especially cards with gifts of money.

Parent said that they recently found mail at one of the local parks that looked as if someone had gone through it and disposed of what they didn’t want. Police returned the rest of the mail to the owner.

The United States Post Office offers these tips to protect your mail:

Use the letter slots at your post office to mail letters, or give them to a letter carrier.